Renowned as one of the finest courses on the South Coast, Parkstone in Dorset is proudly ranked in the Top 100 golf courses in Great Britain and Ireland. Upholding their championship-level playing conditions year round isn’t always easy, particularly during increasingly heavy and prolonged periods of rainfall, but it is a challenge relished by Course Manager Grant Peters and his team of 9. He explains how the club’s winter playability has taken a major leap forwards thanks to the installation of Hydrowick drainage by Djuke.

Passionate about course quality, Grant has been at the club for the last nine years and, over that time, identified that persistent waterlogging on some problematic greens – and increasingly on the fairways – was impacting rounds. Seeking an innovative, non-invasive solution, Grant spoke to contractors Djuke about the Hydrowick drainage system and the rest, as they say, is history!

“We had a very tentative trial of the system on the back half of one of our worst performing greens and the impact was immediate and dramatic” he explains. “The transformation in water movement was so good we immediately pushed the button to have Hydrowick installed on all of our problem greens. Since then, we’ve had nine greens done – turning what were some of the wettest areas of the course into the driest.”

He emphasises, “We can see an inch of rainfall and, within a couple of hours, these greens are playable where, previously, they’d have been closed for half a day or longer.” Encouraged by the results on the greens, Grant is delighted to have now rolled Hydrowick onto Parkstone’s fairways. “We had no concerns whatsoever that the system would perform equally as well here and, lo and behold, shortly after the installation at the start of November we saw 60mm of rainfall and the fairway remained playable.”

Hydrowick is one of the most efficient and effective drainage systems on the market, utilising a patented rope system to ‘wick’ away excess moisture. Laid at 2m centres, the installation process is also far less invasive than most other systems – maximising results and returning surfaces to play within 24 hours. Generating very little spoil was one of the key advantages for Grant, with Parkstone designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest meaning the club is highly constrained on where and how it can move and store soil.

The club now plans to extend the Hydrowick programme to a further three or four fairways, with installations proposed for late 2026 into early 2027. “Cameron and the whole team at Djuke are an absolute pleasure to work with. Everything from initial quotation through to installation was quick, polite, tidy and professional and the end result ticks every box for us” he concludes.